Do you plan to dress up the engine a bit before final install. like Paint it?

Absolutely. I still have to tear the engine down to gap the rings and inspect the bearings. I'm going with an LJMS Turbo Cam as well. I will be painting the block gloss black and all the rails and coil mounts etc will all be cleaned and powdercoated. One of my good friends has a powdercoating business and has always been helpful with any of my personal projects.

The transmission crossmember has been made for the 4l80e. Also found a nice set of factory headers from GM that will be a direct bolt in to work for NA Builds if anyone decides to tackle this project once I'm done with mine. Hot side on the turbo is next then intercooler plumbing.

Second that. Beautiful work & thank you for the update.
Out of curiosity, would a 6-speed have been more difficult in this conversion?

Not really. You would have to source a 5 speed x5 being parted out and steal the pedal assembly and get the hydraulic portion. Then plumb in your own lines to the TR6060 or T-56 that you choose. This is more of a race build than a daily build otherwise I would have done something similar but the costs go up substantially to go manual just because of the transmission cost alone. A Cammed LS3/TR6060 build for everyday use in a 04-06 4.8is would be an amazing project.

Not really. You would have to source a 5 speed x5 being parted out and steal the pedal assembly and get the hydraulic portion. Then plumb in your own lines to the TR6060 or T-56 that you choose. This is more of a race build than a daily build otherwise I would have done something similar but the costs go up substantially to go manual just because of the transmission cost alone. A Cammed LS3/TR6060 build for everyday use in a 04-06 4.8is would be an amazing project.

Yes it would! One day.. lol. Im gonna let you finish this one first so you can give us all some motivation

Turbo is on and downpipe has been started. We were able to squeeze a 3.5" downpipe in which was great news. With the 76mmPrecision Turbo and the 6.0 it should light pretty quick and not have awful boost lag. Any input on exhaust tip setup in the back? I was thinking about putting 2 tips in the middle like Fluid Motor Union's Offroad X5. Or I could run stock 4.6is tips for a sleeper look.